Method of making printed felt base floor coverings



April 5, 1955 I J. E. HAZELTINE,YJR.. ETAL 2,705,683

METHOD OF MAKING PRINTED FELT BASE FLOOR COVERINGS Filed. April 10, 1952INVENTOR JAMES E. HAZELTINE, JR. HARRIET A. GELZENLICHTER ATTORNEYUnited States Patent Ofifice gvhifh fmayhbe produced b at asp alt inawell 2705683 Following formation paint 2, which may be FLOOR COVERINGS0 paints, such as a casein METHOD OF MAKING PRINTED FELT BASE thesaturated felt.

James E. Hazeltine, Jr., and Harriet A. Gelzenlichter, felt is thenapplie Lancaster, Pa., assignors to Armstrong Cork Company, knifecoater, a film 3 c Lancaster, P a corporation of Pennsylvania 3 Claims.(Cl. 11714) This invention relates to printed felt base floor coverbyWeight butadiene and 60% After drying the thus coated sheet feltbasefloor coverings produced by a method in which paint 4 is knife coatedthereon.

and the resulting product is sub ected to comparatively in the Presenceof a resin n fi igh temperatures to produce a smooth wearing surface asuitable solvent. Over the coatl of fused vinyl resin. an adhesivecoating paint 5,

Felt base floor coverings are well known to the art. filled coating inwhich the binder Generally speaking, they have been produced by coatingacrylonitrile rubber a sheet of saturated felt, which may beasphalt-saturated speaking, the binder felt, with a backing palnt and acoating paint to provide which flow out to produce a decorative wearingsurface to about 50% inert filler; the binder Patented Apr. 5, 1955 ypassing -known man of the saturated sheet 1, a backing any of the coniene-acr in a sharply-defined pattern. Ordinarily the print paint,geously contains about 25% which is the term commonly used in the art todescribe and about 75% to 20% the material used to form the decorativewearing surabout 25% rubberlike po synthetic resin varnishes.

Although these materials have been sold for a number the coating paintof years and have met with public acceptance, because vinyl resindecorative coa of the nature of the block printing process it was notadvantageous results hav possible to utilize a number of the morerecently detions containing 40% veloped synthetic resins which possessedhighly desirable 60% to 35% reinforci characteristics from thestandpoint of a decorative wearinert filler, with less t ing surface ina felt base floor covering. For example, tooth or mechanical bond betwmers of vinyl chloride with vinylidene chloride, and the of tackifiersand reinfo to use in the block printing machines.

' Recently there has been developed a method of producing felt basefloor coverings utilizing a decorative the conventional block printingequipment. However, in

We have found that such damage to the vinyl resin 5. Polystyrene.

stantrally completely eliminated by providing a particular agent havebeen used and fou to the application of the decorative wearing filmthereto 75 tain 35-60 parts of polyvinyl c by the block printingtechnique. of a butadiene-acrylonitrile c A preferred embodiment of ourinvention is illustrated parts of butadiene an in the accompanyingdrawing, which is a vertical secsults were obtained with a ratio tionalview of a piece of felt base floor covering made in chloride togetherwith 45 parts 0 accordance with our invention. 30 trile copolymer.

In the drawing, 1 represents an asphalt-saturated felt tains 50-80 partsof a butadien rner containing a ma step and resulted in an undesirableappearance of the 4. A styrene-butadiene c wearing surface. 70 ofstyrene with 2-20 pa reinforcing resi ng resin. han about 50% l. Astyrene-butadiene co wearing surface produced by block printing adispersion parts of styrene an of vinyl resin onto an asphalt-saturatedfelt base utilizing 2. An acrylonitrile-b 80 parts of butadi utadiene coene and 45- order to obtain the required smooth hard wearmg surface 3.An isobutylene-lso parts of isobutyl to comparatively high temperaturesin order to fuse the 4. A polychloroprene.

B. Reinforcing agents Polyvinyl chloride.

copolymer of polyvin problems developed, particularly one which we havetate containing 95- 5-20 parts of polyv yl chloride and 80 parts of inylacetate. the asphalt saturant which caused blisters beneath the 3. Apolyvinyl chloride-polyvinylidene polymer the sheet through a ventionalbacking paint, is applied to one side of m an aqueous ularly advanta-'aining about 40% to by weight styrene. of felt, a coating yl chloride.Generally contains about 20% to about chloride and about to aboutylonitrile rub ber Such ad- 20% to about and about 80% mixtureadvantaberlike polymer n. If less than to 65% rubberlike polymer and Asto the quantity. of filler the desired een the coating paint containing30-60 d 70-40 parts of butadiene.

polymer containing 55- polyvinyl acearious combinations of tackifierwith reinforcing nd to be successful for the hloride with 65-40 partsopolymer containing 65 d 35 parts of acrylonitrile. Best re- (65 partsof butadiene-35 parts of acrylonitrile) with 5.0-20 parts of a resinouscopolymer of vinyl chloride and vinylidene chloride. Best results wereobtained with a ratio of 70 parts of the butadiene-acrylonitrilecopolymer together with 30 parts of resinous copolymer.

In each instance about l to 4 parts of an inert filler, such as woodfiour, micronized slate, whiting, clay, and the like, are employed for 1part of the binder or resinrubberlike polymer mixture.

The thus prepared sheet is then passed through conventional blockprinting machines, and over the adhesive coating paint 5 is blockprinted a decorative Wearing 'surface by successive applications ofdesired colors. The decorative wearing surface 6 is advantageously adispersion of vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resin or apolyvinyl chloride resin in the form of an organosol. Such decorativewearing surface print paints are described in eopending applicationSerial No. 207,576, filed January 24, 1951, and now Patent No.2,624,682, by James E. Hazeltine, Jr., a typical formulation being asfollows:'

Parts by weight Titanium dioxide pigment 80 Lead chromate pigment 1 6Dioctyl phthalate plasticizer 136 Vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymerresin 410 Mineral spirits 110 Butylated urea-formaldehyde resin (60%50-50 butanol xylene) The titanium dioxide and lead chromate serve ascoloring matter for the coating dispersion and the dioctyl phthalate asa plasticizer for the vinyl copolymer, the latter serving as thefilm-forming resin.

Following the printing operation, the floor covering is passed through afusion chamber in which the material is heated at substantially elevatedtemperatures, such as about 280 F. to about 350 F. to fuse the wearingsurface coating and provide a hard smooth film.

- Following the fusion step, the floor covering is rolled and is readyfor transfer to inspection.

It is believed that the size coat prevents blistering because itprovides a highly impervious barrier which prohibits-gases evolved fromthe asphalt-saturated felt at the high fusion temperatures from passingthrough the barrierand to a point directly beneath the decorativewearing coat- Without the size coat, the products when subjected to thehigh fusion temperatures develop numerous blisters which are believed tobe caused by this gas evolution,

We claim: 7 v

1,. In the manufacture of printed felt base floor covering bya processwhich includes coating a sheet of asphaltsaturated felt with anoleoresinous coating; applying an adhesive coating containing about toabout 50% binder and about 80% to about 50% inert filler said binderincluding about to about 80% tackifier selected from the groupconsisting of styrene-butadiene copolymers, acrylonitrile-butadienecopolymers, isobutylene-isoprene copolymers, and polychloroprene, andabout 75% to 20% reinforcing agent selected from the group consisting ofpolyvinyl chloride, copolymers of polyvinyl chloride and polyvinylacetate, copolymers of-polyvinyl chloride and polyvinylidene chloride,styrene-butadiene copolymers, and polystyrene over said oleoresinouscoating; block printing a decorative vinyl resin coating over saidadhesive coating; and fusing said block printed vinyl resin film, theimprovement comprising coating said impregnated felt with abutadiene-styrene copolymer size coat prior to application of saidoleoresinous coating, whereby blistering of the decorative vinyl filmduring fusion at temperatures of about 280 F. to about 350 F. isprevented.

2. A method of making a felt base floor covering comprising coating asheet of asphalt-impregnated felt with a size coat of butadiene-styrenecopolymer; applying an oleoresinous coating paint to said size coat;applying to said coating paint an adhesive coating containing a out 80%to about 50% by weight inert filler and about 20% to about 50% by weightbinder including about 25% to about 80% by weight of a tackifierselected from the group consisting of styrenerbutadiene copolymers,acrylonitrile-butadiene copolymers, isobutylene-isoprene copolymers, andpolychloroprene, and about to about 20% by Weight of a reinforcing agentselected from the group consisting of polyvinyl chloride, copolymers 'ofpolyvinyl chloride and polyvinyl acetate, copolymers of polyvinylchloride and polyvinylidene chloride, styrenebutadiene copolymers, andpolystyrene; block printing a vinyl resin decorative wearing film oversaid adhesive coat; and fusing said wear film at a temperature betweenabout 280 F. and about 350 F.

3. A method of making a vinyl resin floor covering comprising coating asheet of asphalt-impregnated felt with a size coat of butadiene-styrenecopolyinenapplying an oleoresinous coating paint to said size coat;applying to said coating paint an adhesive coating containing about toabout 50% by weight inert filler and about 20% to about 50% by weightbinder including about 40% to about 65% by weight tackifier selectedfrom the group consisting of'styrene-butadiene copolymers,acrylonitrilebutadiene copolyniers, isobutylene-isoprene copolymers, andpolychloroprene, and about 60% to about 35% by weight reinforcing agentselected from the. group consisting of polyvinyl chloride, copolymers ofpolyvinyl chloride and polyvinyl acetate, copolymers of polyvinylchloride and polyvinylidene chloride, styrene-butadiene copolymers, andpolystyrene; block printing a vinyl chloride resin decorative wearingfilm over said adhesive coat; and fusing said film at a temperaturebetween about 280 F. and about 350 F.

References Cited in the file of this patent

1. IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PRINTED FELT BASE FLOOR COVERING BY A PROCESSWHICH INCLUDES COATING A SHEET OF ASPHALTSATURATED FELT WITH ANOLEORESINOUS COATING; APPLYING AN ADHESIVE COATING CONTAINING ABOUT 20%TO ABOUT 50% BINDER INCLUDING ABOUT 80% TO ABOUT 50% INERT FILLER, SAIDBINDER INCLUDING ABOUT 25% TO ABOUT 80% TACKIFIER SELECTED FROM THEGROUP CONSISTING OF STYRENE-BUTADIENE COPOLYMERS,ACRYLONITRILE-BUTADIENE COPOLYMERS, ISOBUTYLENE-ISOPRENE COPOLYMERS, ANDPOLYCHLOROPRENE, AND ABOUT 75% TO 20% REINFORCING AGENT SELECTED FROMTHE GROUP CONSISTING OF POLYVINYL CHLORIDE, COPOLYMERS OF POLYVINYLCHLORIDE AND POLYVINYL ACETATE, COPOLYMERS OF POLYVINYL CHLORIDE ANDPOLYVINYLIDENE CHLORIDE, STYRENE-BUTADIENE COPOLYMERS, AND POLYSTYRENEOVER SAID OLEORESINOUS COATING; BLOCK PRINTING A DECORATIVE VINYL RESINCOATING OVER SAID ADHESIVE COATING; AND FUSING SAID BLOCK PRINTED VINYLRESIN FILM, THE THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING COATING SAID IMPREGNATED FELTWITH A BUTADIENE-STYRENE COPOLYMER SIZE COAT PRIOR TO APPLICATION OFSAID OLEORESINOUS COATING WHEREBY BLISTERING OF THE DECORATIVE VINYLFILM DURING FUSION AT TEMPERATURES OF ABOUT 280* F. TO ABOUT 350* F. ISPREVENTED.